About

The SNP / Scottish Conservatives Political Rivalry refers to an ongoing political rivalry between the Scottish National Party (SNP) and the Scottish Conservatives which has been notable in both Scottish and British politics overall.

The SNP and the Scottish Conservatives hold opposing positions on Scottish independence with the SNP in favour of it and the Scottish Conservatives against it and in some cases, it has been compared to the political rivalry of the Democrats and Republicans in the United States.

Nicola Sturgeon, leader of the SNP and First Minister of Scotland and Ruth Davidson, leader of the Scottish Conservatives have been two of the most prominent leaders in their parties.

Background

Scottish National Party (SNP)

The Scottish National Party (SNP) is a Scottish nationalist, social-democratic political party in Scotland. The SNP supports and campaigns for Scottish independence.

It is the second-largest political party by membership in the United Kingdom, behind the Labour Party and ahead of the Conservative Party; it is the Third-largest by overall representation in the House of Commons, behind the Conservative Party and the Labour Party; and it is the largest political party in Scotland, where it has the most seats in the Scottish Parliament and 35 out of the 59 Scottish seats in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom

The creation of the SNP came from the merger of the National Party of Scotland and the Scottish Party, with Robert Bontine Cunninghame Graham as its first president. Professor Douglas Young, who was the leader of the Scottish National Party from 1942 to 1945 campaigned for the Scottish people to refuse conscription and his activities were popularly vilified as undermining the British war effort against the Axis powers. Young was imprisoned for refusing to be conscripted.

The SNP first won a parliamentary seat at the Motherwell by-election in 1945, but Robert McIntyre MP lost the seat at the general election three months later. They next won a seat in 1967, when Winnie Ewing was the surprise winner of a by-election in the previously safe Labour seat of Hamilton. This brought the SNP to national prominence, leading to the establishment of the Kilbrandon Commission.

Scottish Conservatives

The Scottish Conservatives is the branch of the Conservative Party in the United Kingdom that operates in Scotland. Describing itself as a "patriotic party of the Scottish centre-right", it is the second-largest party in the Scottish Parliament and Scottish local government. It also sends the second-largest Scottish representation to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, after the SNP in each respect.

History

Pre-2014

The SNP and the Scottish Conservatives were at the time of the creation of the Scottish Parliament, two of the opposition parties in parliament, the second and fourth largest parties respectively. Originally the Scottish Labour Party and the Scottish Liberal Democrats governed Scotland for the first eight years of devolution.

In 2007, the SNP were elected into the Scottish Parliament with the Scottish Conservatives rising to the third largest party in the Scottish Parliament, behind the SNP and the Scottish Labour Party.

2014 Scottish independence referendum

In 2011, the SNP won a landslide election where they gained a majority of seats in the Scottish Parliament. Due to this, the SNP had enough seats in parliament to gain a majority support for a referendum on Scottish independence.

During the referendum campaign, the Scottish Conservatives gained noterity as they were one of the leading parties on the No campaign.

The Scottish Conservatives joined the Scottish Labour Party and Scottish Liberal Democrats to form a political alliance which would later become the No campaign, Better Together.

Scotland voted to remain in the United Kingdom after "No" won the referendum by a margin of 55% to 45%.

2015 UK general election

After the independence referendum, there was an evergrowing worry for the Scottish Conservatives that the SNP would hold a second independence referendum and since the 2015 election, they used it as a campaign strategy

The SNP won a landslide victory in 2015, winning 56 out of Scotland's 59 total seats. The other three main political parties received one seat each.

2016 Scottish Parliament election

During the 2016 Scottish Parliament election, the SNP were expected to return a majority of seats in the Scottish Parliament. The Scottish Conservatives campaign mainly focused on replacing Scottish Labour as the second largest party in parliament.

Due to the Scottish Labour Party's affiliation with the Scottish Conservatives and the Scottish Liberal Democrats, Scottish Labour went into decline which resulted in the Scottish Conservatives replacing them as the second largest party.

The SNP meanwhile went on to win the election with 63 seats but lost their majority which they won in 2011 due to the proportional representation voting system in the Scottish Parliament. Despite this, the SNP became the first party in Scotland to win three Scottish Parliament terms and become the first party in a Scottish Parliament election to win over 1 million votes.

2016 EU membership referendum

During the 2016 EU membership referendum, both the SNP and the Scottish Conservatives campaigned to remain in the European Union and both parties were represented in national TV debates.

2017 UK general election

Conservative Party leader Theresa May called a general election in 2017 to increase her majority in the UK Parliament but backfired, however the Scottish Conservatives gained 12 seats from the SNP in the election.

2019 European Parliament election

The 2019 European Parliament elections saw the SNP double their number of votes from the 2014 European Parliament elections where they won another MEP whilst the Scottish Conservatives managed to only received 11.9% of the vote.

2021 Scottish Parliament election

The 2021 Scottish Parliament election will happen on May 5th, 2021. The SNP are likely to win a fourth term according to latest polls whilst the Scottish Conservatives are aiming to replace the SNP as the party of government.

Related Memes

Scottish Conservatives' Obession to Scottish Independence

Scottish Conservatives' Obession to Scottish Independence is a spat used by SNP and Scottish independence supporters who mock the Scottish Conservatives for being obsessed with independence.

Since the 2015 UK general election, the Scottish Conservatives have used the opposing threat of a second independence referendum as a campaign strategy.

The Scottish Conservatives have used this tactic in the elections that followed. Most prominently in the 2017 UK general election and the 2019 European Parliament Elections, the Scottish Conservatives have heavily used their

On social media, the Scottish Conservatives continue to be post responses and graphics that relate to First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and the prospect of a second Scottish independence referendum being held and the Scottish National Party's proposals to hold it in the light of Brexit.

The posts have since been mocked by SNP and Scottish independence who have parodied the graphics they post due to the consistency it makes when it is posted and its constant appearance on their profile pages with SNP and Scottish independence supporters claiming that they have nothing else to post.

The Scottish Conservatives started posting pictures on social media which included text saying "Scotland Said No in 2014! We Meant It" or "Give It A Rest, Nicola" with a stock picture of Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson included on it.

These posts were targeted towards First Minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon and the Scottish National Party (SNP) as they planned a campaign to propose a second independence referendum in response to Brexit.

The photos that were tweeted were instantly mocked by SNP and Scottish independence supporters citing that the Scottish Conservatives had nothing better to do.

Twitter user @MorrisMilne had posted a humorous fictional conversation between two Conservative politicians on one of the tweets that the Scottish Conservative Party posted on Twitter on what they were able to do as a party to attack the SNP which was to post a stock picture of Ruth Davidson to attack the SNP (see below).

Various Examples

Scotland Said No To The Conservatives In…

Scotland Said No To The Conservatives In… is a tweet that was posted on Twitter on one of the Scottish Conservatives Twitter feed. Ever since, it has been used by Scottish independence and SNP supporters to mock the Scottish Conservative Party's performance in elections in response to their opposition to Scottish independence with their slogan "Scotland Said No in 2014!"

Twitter user BraveMightyProudFree (@kdlanod) posted a tweet where he listed all the years that the Conservative Party weren't elected in Scotland since 1959. This was in response to the Scottish Conservatives' ever growing tweets focusing on that Scotland had said no to independence and that the people of Scotland meant it. The tweet received 515 retweets and over 1,300 likes (see below)

Since @kdlanod's tweet was published, many other independence supporters had used a similar format, such as adding more elections were the Conservatives failed to win a majority of seats in Scotland as well as their politician's election failures as well, such as Murdo Fraser, a Scottish Conservative MSP who failed seven times to win a seat at both Westminster and Scottish Parliament election (see below)

Search Interest